


History Repeating

by flyingonfeatherlesswings



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Guardians of the Galaxy - All Media Types
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen, Parent Yondu Udonta, Protective Yondu, Slavery, The abuse and threats are not on yondus part, excessive amounts of murder on yondus part, threats of violence against a child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 18:26:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10927506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingonfeatherlesswings/pseuds/flyingonfeatherlesswings
Summary: When a Ravager gambles away Peter, Yondu unleashes hell.





	History Repeating

Being charged with the Captain’s scrappy little Terran pet while the rest of the crew enjoyed themselves while docked on some backwater, criminal-friendly planet was not what Relta would call an acceptable situation. Normally it was Kraglin who was charged with watching the boy, since he was the closest in age, but since the Xandarian began getting hair on his face he started to be able to hold his alcohol more, and the crew decided he was due a break and a night off from playing babysitter. A name was randomly picked and Relta’s luck failed him.

After an hour of so sitting in the deserted Eclector though, Relta wanted to make sure his luck wasn’t all bad. The Terran wasn’t a baby, they’d had him for a couple of years and he could manage himself well enough. He was currently sitting in the mess hall, swinging his legs and eating a bowl of soup, his music device by his side and headphones on like always. When Relta stomped in, Peter was quick to stop the tape and tug off the headphones.

“Okay, squirt, what do you say to getting off this big hunk of metal? Doesn’t seem fair that we have to stay here, right?” asked the man.

Peter eyed Relta suspiciously; the man came from one of the Xandarian colonies, and therefore looked just like anyone from Earth. He was tall, with crooked teeth and long greasy hair, and appeared to be an older teenager. Peter may not have trusted him on Earth, but here in space he couldn’t help but listen to what the Ravagers who could pass as Earthlings had to say more. And it helped that Relta had never threatened to eat him.

“But Yondu said I had to stay here, said I needed to tighten the bolts on the exhaust ducts up on Level B,” said the boy. Peter took any work he was given very seriously, if he could make it obvious that he was useful, he’d be left alone and no would eat him. He didn’t like the idea of skipping out on his work. But, he had been on board of the Eclector for only God knows how long, he wasn’t often allowed to disembark with the crew, only when his small size was needed to complete an operation and even then he hadn’t been allowed to wander or explore the sites. Get the job done and get back on the ship.

So to have what a 10 year-old Earth boy might consider an “older cool boy” asking him if he wanted to break the rules and stretch his legs, Peter was presented with a dilemma.

“Come on,” sighed Relta, “You know he just told you to do that stuff to keep you busy and out of trouble, the ducts are fine. Aren’t you bored of being stuck in this confined, loud, dirty piece of garbage?”

Peter scrunched up his face, thinking. He was a naturally inquisitive boy and was curious about the different alien cultures surrounding him. He felt like he had spent ages being scared and he just wanted to move on.

“Okay but only for a little bit, okay? Before the crew gets back.”

“Sure thing kid, I don’t wanna get my ass kicked either.”

xxx

The two quickly set off, Peter reluctantly leaving his Walkman behind in case they ran into trouble. They slipped around the streets, Relta keeping his head down in case he spotted the other Ravagers. He kept Peter close behind him.

They came to a bar, further away from the center of the space port, that seemed less busy. The waitresses may have raised an eyebrow when a man came in ushering a child, but they did nothing to stop him. Instead Relta made Peter sit in a booth and told him to be quiet and not to speak to anyone, even if they spoke to him. Peter nodded and Relta left him to order a drink.

Relta busied himself around the bar, sitting and talking to ladies in a variety of florescent colors and bearing multiple eyes. He seemed to be enjoying himself, though the same could not be said for Peter, who was quickly wishing he had brought his Walkman along, if only to dissuade the customers of the bar from talking to them. Most were just curious; asking him where he was from, what he was doing here, where was his parents. Peter shrugged them off, nodding at Relta saying his older brother was watching him. Those scoffed at the how irresponsible siblings could be and went on their way. Some attention was starting to really get under Peter’s skin. One customer had looked him up and down a bit too thoughtfully, and then went to sit somewhere else in the bar. He had a reptilian look to him, with ridges running along his scalp and glowing eyes. Peter continued to feel his gaze on him even when he left the boy’s sight.  

Peter was starting to get bored and was just about to ask Relta if they could go when he saw the Ravager get up and swagger drunkenly over to the card table. Well, this should be quick. Relta would lose his units and then they’d have to go back to the ship. Peter would just have to wait a little longer.

And it was quick. The young drunk, and frankly _stupid_ , Ravager, never had a chance being any sort of competition. His game didn’t even draw many onlookers, just enough to block Peter’s view. Peter could tell from the small audience’s reactions though that it wasn’t going well for Relta and they’d be out soon.

At one point, the conversation around the table got hushed, and Relta hunched forward to speak quietly with the other gambler. Then another round of the game started anew, followed quickly by a moan of disappointment as his hand failed him once again.

“That’s it, Ravager,” said a voice with almost a hiss to it. “Pay up.”

“Yeah, yeah,” slurred the young man back.

“You going to keep up your part of the deal, or are we going to have trouble?”

There was a silence, and Peter was starting to wonder if Relta lost more than units when he heard his crewmate respond back, “Nah, just take him.”

The Ravager got up from the table and stumbled towards the door, without even a backwards glance towards Peter. The boy started to get up and then he caught sight of man who had just beaten Relta rise up from his chair. It was the snake man, and his eyes were trained on Peter.

Peter froze as the man came towards him, followed by two large guys who must have been in his employment. Peter desperately yelled after Relta, “Relta hey wait up, what’s going on? Wait for me?” Hoping some mistake had been made, but the Ravager simply disappeared through the doorway, into the street.

One of the muscly men behind the snake man lunged forward and grabbed Peter’s arm, who immediately started to kick and twist and try to bite, “Relta come back! Help! Help!”

The other patrons looked away from the scene, and some even had the decency to look ashamed about it. “Oh my, a feisty one, eh? We’ll have to put a stop to that,” hissed the snake man, who pulled out a small blaster and aimed it at Peter. “Now come along, boy.”

Panic was welling up inside Peter, “What happened? Where are you taking me?”

“Your friend is a lousy gambler and decided whatever you are to him was worth betting in a game of Hand Down. That means you’re part of my winnings and I’m taking you wherever I want.”

xxx

The crew of the Eclector got back to the ship after a night of heavy drinking and trouble-making and Yondu commanded the few that were sober enough, there were a few species of alien on board who didn’t react to alcohol but that didn’t stop them from trying, to get the ship off the planet and on their way towards their next mark. It wasn’t good for Ravagers to hang around in one place too long, and the fee for docking was outrageous. The crew was lucky their last job paid so well and they had good reason to celebrate.

Kraglin had what he could probably call the best night of his 17 years. He had been treated like a man and he had gotten countless pats on the back as he had downed his fourth drink. He wanted nothing more to slink off towards his bunk and sleep off his drunkenness but once the ship was put on autopilot, Yondu stopped him and thrust a canvas bag into his hands.

“Hey Kraglin, go give this to Quill alright? His old shoes are falling apart so I got him these.”

“You bought Peter new shoes, cap’in?” asked Kraglin blinking slowly, not really comprehending the captain going shopping for their smallest crew member. The alcohol didn’t help.

Yondu tossed back his head and let out a laugh, “Nah of course not, boy! I won them tonight off of a really small guy, figure they are the runt’s size, if not he could grow into them.”

“But Peter is probably sleeping,” protested Kraglin.

Yondu scowled, “You don’t need to wake ‘im up just toss them in his bunk, now get!”

Kraglin sighed and made his way towards Peter’s bunk. The boy slept in a tiny unused closet that had been allocated for Yondu’s deliveries to Ego. When those had stopped, the room became Peter’s permanently, at least until he grew out of it and had move into the main sleeping quarters.

Kraglin luckily wasn’t too far from Peter’s room and it only took about five minutes to get there. Kraglin knocked on the door, alerting Peter of his presence, “Peter, it’s Kraglin.” He knew better than to startle the boy, he’d been bit too many times doing so.

When he didn’t get a response, he figured Peter was just sleeping and pushed the door open. The room was dark, and Kraglin was about to place the bag down inside by the door, when he noticed that Peter’s cot was empty.

“Peter?” called out Kraglin, turning on the light. The boy should’ve gone to bed hours ago, and he wasn’t one to fall asleep elsewhere on the ship. Nevertheless, Kraglin was about to shrug it off and go to bed, when he saw something very out of place: a little of the cord to Peter’s headphones sticking out from under a pillow. Kraglin came over to the pillow and picked it up, revealing the music player attached to it.

“Oh hell,” muttered Kraglin. Peter took that thing everywhere with him, ever since they had given it back to him after Yondu made the declaration that he was staying. If Peter was off somewhere without his music player, something had to be wrong.

xxx

Kraglin walked through the mess hall asking the crew that was still awake if they had seen Peter. All of them shook their heads; they hadn’t seen the kid since before they disembarked.

“Why don’t you ask Relta? He was the one charged with looking after him.”

Kraglin could’ve slapped himself for not thinking of the obvious answer and he resolved never to drink again if it made his mind this slow. He jogged his way to the sleeping quarters where he tip-toed over drunken Ravagers. He found Relta curled against the wall on his bunk, passed out.

Kraglin wasted no time shaking the other young man awake and saying in a harsh whisper, “Hey Relta, wake up. Come on, you bastard, I gotta ask you somethin’.” Kraglin had never liked Relta, finding him to be stupid and a little too selfish to work with. He didn’t mind disrupting his beauty sleep one bit.

Relta grumbled and rolled over onto his back, blinking up at the other Ravager. “What’d’ya’want Kraglin?” he asked in a drunken slur.

“Where’s Peter? He’s not in his bunk and you were the one who was looking after him.”

Relta looked confused for a moment before his face morphed into realization. His posture stiffed and quickly tried to cover his expression with a lie, “Oh Quill? I don’t know where he is, I sent to bed hours ago, kid probably wandered off and fell asleep somewhere else.”

Even as drunk as he was, Kraglin knew that was a lie, “Relta, stop it, where is Peter?”

Relta shook his head, trying to come up with another lie, a better lie closer to the truth, “Uhh okay, um well I kinda got off the ship for a while to get a drink and maybe the boy snuck off?”

“You what?! Peter is back on that planet?”

“Uh yeah, maybe.”

“We have to tell the Cap’n!”

Relta swallowed, beginning to dread the consequences for his actions as Kraglin hurried him off towards Yondu’s quarters.

Yondu was none too happy to be woken up by the two teens but his expression hardened once Relta stuttered out his confession to the Captain.

Yondu led the way to the control room and once they were there he gestured for Relta to sit in a chair. Kraglin quickly got to work on the control panel, commanding the ship to turn around and make for the planet they had just come from.

“Now you tell me everythin’ boy, don’t you dare bend a single detail.”

Relta was now sweating and looking a bit green, “I uh lost Quill.”

“You lost ‘im? Just misplaced a little Terran boy?”

“Uh well he must have gotten off the ship when I snuck off to get a drink.”

“Uh huh, he snuck off or he went off wit you?”

“Yeah, wait no, I mean he snuck off,” said Relta, now shaking under the gaze of their captain.

Yondu shook his head, “Aw hell, boy.” He let out on a whistle and the arrow was in front of Relta’s neck. The teen tried to lean away from it but it kept on target, “I think it’s time you start tellin’ me the truth.”

xxx

Peter had been ushered into a hovercraft of some kind which had taken him to what looked to him like a warehouse outside the city. Whilst in the craft he was injected with some kind of serum and it had made him flinch violently away, “What was that?”

“Oh just a little something to keep you calmer, won’t knock you out because the buyers want to see you’re alive.” said the snake man.

“Buyers?” asked Peter, already starting to feel woozy from the injection.

“Oh yes buyers, you, a healthy young bipedal boy? You’ll catch me a nice amount. Someone out there will mold you into a very good soldier.”

Peter wanted to fight as he was brought into the building, he really did, but his limbs felt too heavy. And once he was inside, in some type of back hallway, he was shoved into a small room, harsh bright lights shining above him. In there he was poked and prodded by a man in a long white coat. “He’s healthy alright,” said the man.

“Can you tell me where he is from?” asked the snake man.

“Looks Zandarian to me, did you try asking him? Hey, kid where are you from?” asked the man, lightly slapping his hand against Peter’s cheek to get his attention. Peter simply winched and looked away, his lips sealed shut.

“Zandarians don’t take kindly to their kind being enslaved,” said the man in the white coat.

“He’s a Ravager stray, he won’t be missed,” replied the snake man.

Next Peter’s hands were placed in shackles and his ankles were connected with a chain just long enough for him to take shuffling, slow steps.

The snake man escorted him to a small cell, where he was pushed inside. “Stay put until it’s time for the auction,” said the snake man before slamming the door shut.

Peter finally allowed himself to crumple to the floor, curling up in the fetal position. Tears started to flow down his face and he felt like he did when he was first taken by the Ravagers, helpless and all alone and completely confused by his surroundings. He had cried for his mother then, but now he let out a whimper calling out for someone probably even less likely to come than his dead mom.

“Yondu, please save me.”

xxx

Peter had dozed off, an effect of the drug and his exhaustion from crying and was harshly shaken awake by a large, ridge-covered man. “Auction time, kid,” said the man has he man-handled Peter out into the hallway.

Peter shuffled his way down the hallway, the man’s hand on his shoulder guiding him. They turned right at some point and came to some stairs, at which point the man lifted him over his shoulder and hauled him up. He set Peter in front of a door, and reached into his pocket. “Just one more thing,” he muttered. He brought out a black blindfold and wrapped it around Peter’s head, blocking all light before opening the door and shoving Peter through it.

Peter stumbled a little before gaining his footing. He turned his head each way, his senses trying to pick up what he could. All he could hear was low murmuring and an occasional cough from what must have been a crowd of people.

“Hello? Where am---”

Before Peter could finish the sentence though, footsteps quickly approached him and he felt a great shock go through his body. Peter yelped and sprung back from the source of pain.

“No speaking boy!” yelled a voice from a position close to him, probably the source of the painful electric shock. He recognized the distinction hiss on the word ‘speaking’ and knew it was the snake man. “Now let’s get started why don’t we? We have here a young male child. As you can see he’s bipedal and possibly of Zandarian origin. He has been given a clean bill of health and could make a fine soldier or bodyguard one day. Let’s start the bidding at 10,000 units shall we?”

Peter’s heart was starting to beat faster and faster as everything became clear to him. He was about to be sold into slavery. He was going to be a slave, like in his history books. Locked in chains and whipped. Some might say that with the Ravagers he was a slave, but he had his own room and he wasn’t worked to death. And hell, at least he had finally gotten used to the Ravagers, and Yondu had stopped being a _jackass_ at least most of the time. He’d even taught Peter the basic of shooting.

These thoughts were making the tears well up his eyes again and the blindfold was starting to become damp. Tears started to slip down his face and sobs forced their way up his throat.

The auctioneer paused the bidding, “I’m sorry ladies and gentleman, it is a child.” Peter could hear the electric pulse of the shock weapon being turned on again and the boy started to cry harder.

Loud steps approached him, “Now child quit that crying right this in--”

The snake man never finished his sentence and Peter heard and felt a thud as the man fell next to him. The next sound was music to Peter’s ears, the sound of whistling.

“Sorry my fine people, auctions over, this little guy? Not for sale,” yelled out Yondu as he and a few members of his crew entered the room

The room had become completely silent, Yondu must have called back his arrow after it had flown straight through the auctioneer. Yondu approached the stage where Peter was standing and jumped up, “Well I’ll just be taking my crew member and goin’ what do ya say?” asked Yondu. He was met back with silence.

“Really? Nothin? Nothin at all? Well you know what I have to say?” Yondu began to stride up and down the stage, “I say that this is one downright barbaric practice. I say that if you own a slave you don’t deserve to call yourself a person. Yeah, you know what else I say? I say y’all are all gonna die for partaking in this bullshit.”

The room erupted into chaos as Yondu started to whistle and the Ravagers started to fire their guns. There was screaming and blasts as Yondu scooped up Peter and took him back through the door where he had entered. Yondu reached up and snatched off the blindfold off of Peter as he carried him down the stairs, the boy pulled back and looking at him with watery red eyes. “Yondu, you came.” The Centaurian simply shook his head to quiet Peter as he kept whistling making sure that everyone in the auction room was dead. Peter looped his arms around Yondu’s neck and pressed his face down into his neck as the Ravager captain too long strides out of the building.

xxx

Yondu hadn’t wasted any time getting back onto the Eclector and getting Peter deshackled. He had then escorted Peter back to his bunk, where the Terran promptly curled up on his side.

“Now boy, what did we learn today?”

“Don’t disobey your orders, yes sir,” replied Peter, who between all the fear and the crying sounded like a zombie. “Yondu?” asked Peter sitting up, facing the Ravager captain.

“What is it boy?”

“What happened to Relta?”

Yondu cracked a menacing smile, jagged teeth showing, “Oh don’t you worry your little head about him, he got what was coming to him, gamblin’ a fellow crewmate into slavery, gah, he didn’t deserve a quick death.”

Peter nodded and blinked slowly, exhaustion taking over him. “Yondu, I’m tired.”

The captain rolled his eyes, “After that mishap I’m sure you are, now get some sleep.”

“No, no,” said Peter shaking his head, “I mean I’m tired of being scared. I don’t wanna be helpless no more.”

“You’re still a young’un, boy, that comes with being helpless.  And scared.”

Peter’s face fell into a frown as his eyes turned down to his blankets, tears started to fill them once again.

Yondu let out a sigh and came back and kneeled next to Peter, placing a hand on his shoulder, “Look boy, it doesn’t help me to have you be helpless and go and get yourself kidnapped so maybe I could teach you a few more things about shooting okay?”

Peter turned his eyes to peak up at him, “And you’ll teach me how to fly too?”

Yondu gritted his teeth, but the hopeful expression on the little boy did the Ravager in. “Yeah I’ll teach you how to fly too.”

Yondu did not expect the boy to fling himself into his arms and was quickly pushing him off, “Now, now, don’t get sappy on me boy! Go to sleep, you got the duties you neglected to do bright and early!”

But Peter went to sleep with a smile on his face, thinking of a time when he’d fly around the whole galaxy, and if Yondu let him sleep in, no one said a thing.

**Author's Note:**

> My first stand alone GOTG fic (normally I write Peter Quill/Stephen Strange fic). Since I saw GotG 2 my love for the father/son relationship between Peter and Yondu went through the roof, and I wanted to tackle the idea of what happened to Yondu (being sold into slavery) happening to Peter.  
> Hope you liked it! Leave me a comment if you did.


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